Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Scratching the Surface in Downtown Denver - May 2011

Welcome back to all the millions of brain cells (primarily my own, I'm pretty sure) which have seen this blog since my first post in February.

Over the next day or two, I hope to offer a few impressions of downtown Denver, at least from a quick and enjoyable time there on Monday, May 23. Unless noted, my exploration, around 15th, 16th, Stout, Champa, etc., was in a very limited area of perhaps ten square blocks on roughly the west side of the downtown. I'm fortunate to be in the Denver area to see one of my brothers and his family, and appreciate their help with this blog!

Thanks to their being here, there's a lot of the center of Denver that I've seen over recent years (alongside a lot I have not begun to discover), and a few blocks seen on 5/23, starting in a sense, with the elegant Equitable Building of 1892, located on the east side of Stout just north of 16th St and designed by one of the big national firms of the day - Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul, based in Boston and Chicago; I cannot think offhand of any buildings I have seen of theirs, but was interested to learn, as part of a well-done lobby display at the building, that they based its design partly on the world-reknowned and sadly departed Marshall Field Wholesale Warehouse, which H.H. Richardson designed and which stood until 1930 in (or very near?) Chicago's Loop.

By no means does the Equitable Building have the revolutionary feel of the Marshall Field Warehouse, but you can see how its first levels were inspired by that Richardson masterpiece, and above its Romanesque base, it is a very stately structure. Just above, you should be able to see two exterior views of it, but for now I would just note that it contains a beautiful lobby, where, returning to the display I've noted, you also learn that the designers advertised the "E" of the corporate tenant in several ways, partly in the floorplan of the "Equitable" as I hope to show in a posting over the next few days.

Architecturally, the Equitable Bldg. was my major point on the Monday utilized here (!), while culinarily and in a more human sense, I was blessed to discover Los Cabos II at 1525 Champa, honestly attracted to it by its sign for an all-you-can eat buffet, but then, in the next hour or so, very grateful to the waiter-on-duty - Esteban Romero, who introduced me to a tiny bit of its Peruvian heritage and food. Esteban, who's 23, is himself very much a Denverite (having been born and raised in the area), attends Johnson & Wales University on the east side of the city where he studies criminal justice, and happens to have a Columbian South American background, but works at "LC2" (my abbreviation) for his aunt and uncle, who are from Peru; his uncle, Hernan Ruiz, started the first Los Cabos Restaurant in 1987, and LC2 has been at this location for about ten years, as noted by Mr. Ruiz, who told me that the first LC was sold at some point, and this is the sole one that remains. LC is visible at the south end of what looks like a great 1885-1915 or so cluster that Jane Jacobs (maybe the greatest "urbanist" of the 20th century) would have liked, with a little variety of restaurants, including a sandwich place (the Cheba Hut - can't get that horizontal accent line over the e!), Indian and Mexican restaurants....

and the Bovine Metropolis Theater [a reference to Denver being once viewed as a cowtown, or just to the herds that formerly came into town for ranching shows (through I think the 40's)?]....

While I am no restaurant critic, I thought that what I sampled - "Aguadito de Pollo" (chicken soup, but with a plentiful size including two pieces of chicken which I devoured after finishing a muddy, spicey green liquid, rice, etc; $9.50 for all of that) and "chicha", which Esteban is seen (!) pouring below (for $2.75!) - were very good.

The name of this purple-corn based drink (witness also the mock piece of purple corn courtesy of Esteban...

reminded me of "Chifa", a restaurant in Center City Philadelphia which I believe has the same South American-Chinese fusion, at least in general, which LC2 promotes at the beginning of its menu. That reminded me of the aspect of "Asia (and Asians) in South America", which I would say many news observers have heard about over the years largely as manifested in the one-time Peruvian premier - Alberto Fujimori, whose daughter brought the family name back to national politics when she ran earlier this year (unsuccessfully I believe) to run Peru herself. Esteban says that his uncle has a partly Chinese background (along with the "Ruiz" surname) and that his aunt, who I did not meet, has some Japanese background.

My review of LC2 is certainly reinforced by its posted citations over recent years from readers of Denver's "Westword" alt newsweekly, and other recognitions, and from a thumbs-up for a soup known as "Criolla" by another tourist to Denver who was there when I dropped in - Jim Malone, of Jamestown, Tennessee, who was in town to see friends and a U2 concert, as he took a break from getting a Ph.D in communications at the University of Tennessee. [Apologies for knowing more about Jim than his soup, but it was similar in price and generous size to my "Aguadito".)

Here is LC2's interior.....

the miniature "llama" at the right side just above (but with real and wonderfully soft llama's hair):

and one of a number of artworks which Esteban proudly noted as Peruvian:

Los Cabos is, in a larger sense, an interface to something that is an obvious bain for city-lovers like me, as it is next to one of many parking lots on this side of town, which "we" might love to hate, but which also get suburbanites to eclectic blocks like the "1500" stretch of Champa, and the liveliness of parts of the adjacent 16th St. Mall, and, in the case of LC's surface "neighbor", Esteban told me that his uncle (and aunt?) own it, and sure enough, one can see a "Ruiz Parking" sign there as in perhaps the second photo below (if enlarged), meant to show, just to the right of the center, the beautiful, St.Mark's/Venice-inspired Daniels and Fisher Tower....

I would not be surprised if the profits from this lot have helped the Ruizs through less financial success at times (just guessing here) with "LC".

All this is no defense of parking lots, but just a basic reminder of symbiotic relationships, missing at the D & F Tower in that its once-conected department store was torn down (though I forget when) in connection with the loss of that nostalgic Denver institution in 1992. The tower, at least, stands in glorious isolation, as in this picture taken from 15th west of Arapahoe looking north...

and what looks like good shape, and on this visit, having seen it over the years but never having walked inside, I had the pleasure of reading the display in the tower's elevator lobby, including a history of the D & F company whose store was once known as the "Marshall Field of the West" and whose tower, which was, upon its 1910, 330-foot debut (372 including its flagpole) - at least according to the lobby write-up - the tallest structure west of New York. Appropriately, then, the most fun fact of the D and F information I saw in the lobby was in regards to a human landmark - Carl Sandell - for whom I just have a word picture, but he was seven feet tall, and if I remember correctly, was a security guard at the opening of the 1911 D & F store, worked as a doorman there until 1961 and died as a fondly remembered "gentle giant" in 1965.

The Rocky Mountains which are often paired with the Denver skyline enliven a number of westward and southward downtown views, as in this one looking south on Lawrence from 15th Street, where, as in many city centers, I might not need to add that the built environment can be pretty deadly, with apologies to the attractive, ca. 1900 office block just barely visible to the left:

One of my favorite vistas, from a limited look on this trip, but thinking that will remain the case, is a westward one on 15th from Champa, where, minus what would be a much more effective illustration with a zoom lense (not the simple digital camera to be cited for non-bravery here :)], you should still get the three layers of the immediate street view, the Romanesque church on the hill a (mile or so?) west of downtown, and mountains, both snow-capped and brown.....